We had all been looking forward to a very fine meeting to inaugurate the New Year and our new season marking four and half decades of Toastmasters in Fermoy. We had been looking forward to our fellow-members and friends form our sister club in Mitchelstown for what promised to be a very entertaining and effervescent joint meeting. But on the planned evening of January 13th – unlucky as it turned out – the winter weather in its spoilsport way worked against us with hazardous icy road conditions. The decision had to be taken – sadly, reluctantly but very responsibly – to cancel the meeting for the safety and welfare of all due to attend.
No one ever likes having to take this step, but it has always been our watchword over the years at Fermoy Toastmasters that as we are all here for our enjoyment and recreation, the safety of everyone is our uppermost concern. Although our meeting season spans the winter months, it is remarkable how seldom this has happened. There will always be another evening – there will always be another meeting. There will always be another time for gladness and cheer, for memorable speeches and dazzling repartee, for humour and interest and the warmth of personal interaction. There will always be another time to come together and make fresh and new beginnings.
Fermoy has grown and expanded over the years but way back in 1970 when our Toastmasters Club was founded by the vision and generosity of spirit of two brilliant and remarkable men, Niall Brunicardi and Padraig O’Braoin, it was a much smaller town indeed. How many times I recall hearing in the school classroom that the population of Fermoy was but three thousand. Great sprawling housing estates that are today flourishing with the lives of young families in all of their brimming exuberance back then were green pastures grazed by herds of peaceable cattle. Yet this town successfully established what was then just the third ever Toastmasters Club in the country after Dublin and Cork.
It was a brave move made with the most extraordinary optimism and hope. Could Fermoy and its hinterland long sustain such an undertaking that asks of its members a high degree of participation and active involvement? Four and a half decades later that question is being answered now as it was then with a great resounding ‘Yes’! The spirit that guided the original club founders and that first indomitable gathering of members remains as bright and animated today as it ever was.
Today in 2015 as in 1970 and in all the years since we all of us together with one clear and ringing voice say ‘Yes’ to belief in ourselves as individuals and in each other, to friendship and mutual goodwill, to the enjoyment of life and to building each other up by sharing in the development of all of our talents and creative energies, by boosting confidence and leading more rewarding and fulfilling lives, ceaselessly advancing in personal growth and going forward on an exciting journey of self-discovery and the discovery of the richness and depth of all those we share this wonderful journey.
The town and community of Fermoy embraced the promise of Toastmasters and given it a very special, warm and affectionate place right at the very heart of our social, recreational and cultural life, a place of achievement, enjoyment and gaiety. It is a proud tradition that draws strength from past achievements but is ever looking forward to a great and brilliant future. Through the years the club has transmitted and hugely enriched this vision that shines and thrives today with all the zest and enthusiasm of that which is timeless and ever young, always going forward, always seeking the better and brighter day.
Now at this time when Fermoy has entered in a New Year with the very welcome news of fresh industrial investment and the opportunities that will flow from it, there is a renewed sense of local confidence and hope. And we in the Fermoy Toastmasters Club are part of that story too for our every meeting, every act of involvement and participation by every member is an emphatic celebration of life and an affirmation of optimism and self-assurance in friendship and mutual goodwill that brings lasing joy and happiness.
Be it in Fermoy or anywhere Toastmasters recognise the voice of everyone in all their uniqueness and originality while ensuring to all their right to be heard and to make their special and life-enhancing contribution. Every one has a dynamic and positive role to play – every meeting is limited to two hours duration, allowing for a programme of usually of three or four set speeches of no more than seven minutes’ duration, a lively and impromptu topics session where participants are asked to share their thoughts and views on a variety of topical themes and issues about which they have received no prior notice and which always turns out the most engaging, stimulating and uplifting phase of the proceedings.
A half-way tea break allows us all to explore the joy of conversation and the warmth and convivial pleasures of interacting and chatting with friends who wear familiar faces together with those coming to us for the very first time. This is then followed by a further topics session always focussing in on those not on the set programme so that the objective of maximum participation is achieved. Guests are never asked to speak but can relax and enjoy the evening, however if at the appropriate time the spirit should move them we are always delighted to hear the music of a new voice. With this important exception, a Toastmasters meting that allows even one person home without speaking has not quite succeeded.
Then too for every set speech, there is an assigned evaluator who gives all due praise for the speaker’s accomplishments while also offering positive feedback by way of suggestion and encouragement for further progress. Finally, a general evaluator gives an overall assessment of the meeting and of how the main participants such as the topicsmaster who guides the impromptu session and chooses its themes and the toastmaster who introduces the speakers and steers proceedings along, have performed their task and upheld our finest ideals.
Our President, Mary Whelan, and all of us warmly look forward to our next meeting that will be the first of the New Year and season to be held at the Fermoy Bridge Club on Tuesday evening next, January 27th, at 8.15 pm. Please note the change of venue for that occasion. We look forward to seeing you. For further information, please contact Fanahan Colbert at 086 8239007 or Kevin Walsh at 058 60100 or log on to toastmastersfermoy.com.